


Drip. Drip.

by Nyomio



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Study-ish, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29864076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyomio/pseuds/Nyomio
Summary: The coffee machine won't stop dripping, the remains of the last of the coffee beans sliding down and dropping like dishwater into a cup. Gary stares out into the void of Final Space, unable to sleep and unwilling to risk letting his friends get hurt. He falls down a contemplative spiral, ever deepening into a hole he can't seem to crawl out of - that is, until the familiar ship's AI blares to life.*Sort of a rewrite of Nightmares and Blankets, but unintentionally so? I just like insomnia fics.
Relationships: Gary Goodspeed & HUE
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Drip. Drip.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nightmares and Blankets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475223) by [Nyomio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyomio/pseuds/Nyomio). 



Drip. Drip.

The sound of a coffee machine slowly dripping out the remains of what was once a bag of fresh (and woefully limited) coffee beans into a mug fills the air as Gary stares out the window, elbows resting on his knees and leaning forward. The galaxies around him seem to blur together into a mix of paint splatters and corpses as he blearily blinks his eyes, steeling himself for a danger that never seems to come.

Drip. Drip.

Or maybe it never stopped coming? Gary can’t tell anymore. Red tendrils and purple eyes flash in all corners of his eyes, the smell of rotten flesh fresh in his nose, and the feel of skin falling to paper underneath his fist. He looks down, opens and closes his hand. Surrounded by all these dead Garys, and somehow, he is the one who survived? Almost seems comical. He’s nothing special.

Drip. Drip.

Of course, the ghost of a furry hand tightly grabbing him, the embrace of a partner he hadn’t seen in months, the clasp of friendship – they all linger, the sensations causing pricks and pins as he recalls them. There is a reason he’s here, even if he doesn’t know what made him the lucky one. Lucky? Would he call this lucky? Well, he’s alive with his family, so he supposes so, even if…

He looks towards the coffee cup. 

Drip. Drip.

Nothing really matters beyond keeping his family safe, anyways. Him? He’s expendable. Gary corpses flood the air, clawing for a chance to destroy and maim. There’s no role his plays in this group that couldn’t be replaced. His family? That’s what’s important. That’s why he’s staring out into the void. He’s making sure nothing surprises them.

He sighs and puts his hands on his forehead and runs them through his hair. He’s not sure he could sleep if he wanted to, though. The little jolts that keep going through his body when he remembers that he is surrounded by Space Satan. Feeling and seeing versions of himself… seeing himself fail and die over and over again. He tries to stay away from the “Why him?” thoughts as a rule – they are not productive – but the thought does teeter in. What the fuck did he do to make the universe despise him this much?

Did the universe have great expectations of him that he can’t live up to, too?

Drip. Drip. 

He rests his head back on his hands and stares into the endless expanse of Final Space. He once heard that the universe was constantly expanding, and we were one day going to experience the heat death of the Universe. He wonders if that’s true for Final Space as well. They were just going to be stuck here until the coldness of the Universe itself shocks his particles apart and freezes them, isolated and lonely in a vast expanse of space that is uncrossable, unreachable, frigid. 

He wonders what absolute zero feels like. He thinks he already knows.

The dripping stops.

“Gary?” The ship’s AI voice rings through, voice lowered for nighttime, “Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep?”

“Get off my cheeks, HUE,” He says, although without the indignance that normally comes with that phrase. 

There’s a moment of silence, before HUE tries again, “You know I will be here to watch whatever happens. There is a reason we did not set up people to keep watch, and it is because I do not need sleep. Humans, however, do.”

Gary shrugs, slides off of his chair and walks over to the coffee machine. The cup set underneath has caught most of the drops, but it doesn’t look like it’s enough to give him as much energy as he wished he had. He takes the drink anyway. It tastes like dish water, but any energy is good energy.

“It is 4 in the morning. Why are you taking shots of coffee?” HUE says, “Actually, is that even coffee at that point?”

“Tastes like what’s left of street meat after it goes through your stomach tubes,” Gary offhandedly says, staring into the coffee mug. “Also, is time even freakin’ real, yo? We’re in Final Space.”

“I do not know, but what I do know is that you have not slept in what is quite frankly a concerning amount of time. You are not going to be any help to anyone if you are too tired to think straight.” 

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Gary half jokes, “Then they can use my body as a shield if I pass out.”

“Gary!”

The man plops back into the seat and stares back outside. “I’ll be fine, HUE.”

“I do not believe you.”

“Well, freakin’ sucks for you.”

“Gary, I am asking you as a friend: please, worry about yourself for once and go to sleep.”

There’s a moment of silence in which Gary flat out doesn’t respond. HUE being on his case is certainly not new – they spent five years together in which his job was to rehabilitate Gary, so naturally this came about – but this is the first time HUE has asked him for anything as a friend. This time, Gary cannot stifle the yawn. But after too long awake, things start to feel surreal, dreamlike, as though he’s gliding through space – but he can deal. This by far isn’t the worst thing that has happened to him.

Anything is better than loneliness. 

Almost seeming to read his mind, HUE says, “You aren’t alone anymore, Gary. You don’t have to carry the world on your shoulders. That’s what friends are for.”

Finally, a hesitation. Gary sits up, looking upward as though the AI had a physical body. “Exactly. There are millions of me’s out there, but you guys? You’re the real heroes, yo.”

“If you are referring to the thousands of zombie Garys… Gary, the multiverse is vast and expansive, and there are infinite copies of all of us – yet, we are the ones who are here, who survived. Do not put any stock in that. And imagine how worried Little Cato is going to be when you look dead on your feet tomorrow or pass out trying to control the ship.”

That finally makes Gary give a pause, before saying, “I’m just – surrounded by all of my failures, and expected to make this one a success? All these dead versions of me, and I’m the one who’s supposed to win this? Make it make sense.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but in every other timeline, I believe you were the one who brought the bomb into the breach. When you finally allowed someone to help…”

“All the more reason I’m expendable then,” Gary grumbles. 

“What? No! That is not what I am saying at all. We need you. I need you,” HUE says, “Or do you not remember Nightfall’s message?” 

Gary mulls it over, before saying, “That didn’t seem to help us here.”

“Yes, it did. Gary, please, listen to me. No one is expendable – except maybe KVN. You can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean what you do isn’t important. What was it you said? We’ll get through it as a Team.”

“…As a squad,” Gary reluctantly adds.

“As a Team Squad. And we can’t do that if you’re destroying yourself. Please, go to sleep.”

“Well, crap, you’re using my own words against me,” Gary says, standing up and stretching. “I’m guessing I don’t really have a choice?”

“Not really. And – next time you feel this way, come talk to one of us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Gary says, setting the mug down. He pauses before heading out, and says, “This feels like we’re back in the Galaxy One, huh?”

“A bit, yes. However, you have grown so much from that. Do not forget that.”

Gary gives a grin – a genuine, if not extremely exhausted one, and waves at the ceiling. “Goodnight, HUE.”

“Goodnight, Gary. Sleep well.”

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE HUE AND GARY I LOVE GARY ANGST I LOVE -
> 
> Anyways, here you go. It's very close to a rewrite, but I took it from a different angle. It's fairly character studyish, but I think I took him just a little further than I'm comfortable calling it a true character study. Had a lot of fun writing the real introspective stuff, though. I think I was venting a little bit. Been a stressful week.
> 
> Can't wait for season 3!


End file.
